A Different Choice
by Dark-Kingdoms
Summary: Zoisite has just been killed by Queen Beryl. Kunzite makes a decision that slightly changes the course of events. One shot.


** A different choice **

_Comment : A Zoisite and Kunzite story (yes, again). Not even lemon. Who said "so what's the point?".   
This story begins when Zoisite is dying – sorry, tissues are not provided with the fic._

_Zoisite, Kunzite and all the Sailor Moon characters are the property of Naoko Takeuchi, and this story is just a fan-fiction written for my personal enjoyment, no profit is being made on it, rather the contrary._

* * *

A last smile to sakura petals falling in his palm, then his hand fell also, inert by his side. Zoisite passed away with a sad smile on his lips.  
  
Kunzite kept watching at the young and beautiful body now out of life. His mind wandered, at a loss. With all his powers, there had to be something he could have done. But he wasn't allowed to. It was Queen Beryl who had pronounced Zoisite's death sentence. Being Queen Metalia's faithful child and servant, Kunzite had to obey her chosen representative.  
  
He couldn't allow himself to think of an alternative.  
  
Yet... Their enemies had been born again, through the power of the Silver Cristal. Queen Serenity had used it to offer a new life to her deceased daughter and her maids, and even this dumb prince who was now the cause of Zoisite's fall...  
  
The Silver Cristal had resurfaced in the same time as Princess Serenity. He had seen her, once called Sailor Moon, holding it, when he'd gone back to the Starlight Tower to rescue Zoisite. For nothing, since he now laid here, lifeless... For the sole reason that Beryl wanted Tuxedo Kamen, for whatever selfish purpose of hers. Certainly not to achieve Queen Metalia's plans.  
  
And she had asked him to go back there recovering the powerful artifact from their enemies, leaving him no time to grieve upon his right-hand man. He wasn't supposed to feel anything alike, anyway.

Kunzite looked around him absently, through the fading illusion of flowers that he'd conjured up to soften Zoisite's passing. Then his eyes came back to his lithe lieutenant. He lifted him in his arms, and in a dark blue flash he vanished.

The Sailor Senshi were telling their ridiculous leader what had happened while she was unconscious, when Kunzite materialized in the Starlight Tower highest floor, opposite to them. Immediately the Senshi stood between him and Sailor Moon, though he hardly looked threatening for now, holding his fragile burden carefully.  
  
He slowly laid him on the floor, and faced the Senshi. Now he threatened them, without the need of words. He had no time or patience left for bragging and words play. The Senshi gathered closer to their Princess to protect her. Kunzite had a joyless smile and vanished, only to reappear right behind them, next to Sailor Moon. He grabbed the Silver Cristal and blasted her and her bodyguards away.  
  
Raising an energy shield around him, he came back to Zoisite and brandished the Silver Cristal high, invoking its healing power as he'd seen Queen Serenity doing, centuries ago.   
  
At first it seemed the Silver Cristal wouldn't respond to Kunzite's prayer. But the shinma had mastered magic long ago. He knew that power was mostly a matter of will in those areas. So he focused all his mind and his will over the Silver Cristal, to force it, implore it to heal Zoisite. He'd been killed by an evil force, after all... A force the jewel had been designed to fight.  
  
The Cristal eventually started to glow, at the Senshi's astonishment. Kunzite felt the warmth of its light radiating into his arm, getting painful, and grabbed it with both his hands so he wouldn't release it before it had achieved its work.  
  
The light grew stronger and clearer, pulsing like if alive, covering Zoisite's corpse. Kunzite felt the Silver Cristal power trying to consume him as the enemy that he was, but he resisted, ignoring the pain to brandish the powerful artifact higher, his jaws clenched on the shout he kept in.

Then the light decreased suddenly, leaving them all blind for a moment. Kunzite recovered first, and saw the silhouette moving in front of him. His heart missed a beat.  
  
Yet something was wrong. It wasn't Zoisite. Not really. He looked a little younger, less sophisticated with his hair loosened wildly. And he wore a Yamato soldier's armor, not his Dark Kingdom uniform.  
  
The young man looked up to Kunzite, frowned, obviously lost as he tried to stand up on his feet to give the proper salute.  
  
" Kunzite-dono?..."  
  
It had been long, very long since Kunzite had last been called that way. Zoisite had never called him so. From the day Queen Metalia had made him the next Shinma, on Kunzite's suggestion. From the day he'd stopped being human and joined the Dark Kingdom as a demon like Jadeite, and no longer as a mere mortal soldier.  
  
The Silver Cristal... Kunzite let it fall on the floor with a clinking noise. It had brought Zoisite back to life, yes, but also "healed" him from Metalia's influence, her evil power... The young man in front of him was the human he was before, Shiro.  
  
The young man asked further :  
  
" Kunzite-dono? Where are we? Where's the army?"  
  
Kunzite tried to figure out an answer. The Silver Cristal had erased in Shiro all traces of his Dark Kingdom commitment, and all his memories as a shinma too... What was left in him of what they had lived together? Of the few intimacy that Kunzite had granted him, in order to obtain his total devotion?  
  
Ah, it hurt... To remember that he had so deliberately pretended to share Zoisite's feelings, but thought only of the best way to manipulate him. That was necessary to ensure his loyalty, he had thought. Zoisite was so obviously a treacherous weasel, who had abandoned his family then joined and left several clans before he'd eventually elected the Dark Kingdom's human army.  
  
Bloodthirsty, remorseless, feeling absolutely no bond to whoever or whatever but himself and his sword, and certainly not to his kind... All reasons why he'd been the perfect choice to replace the Shinma that was becoming too much of a trouble for Kunzite.  
  
Yet Zoisite's freedom had seemed dangerous to Kunzite, and he'd looked for a way to keep a hold on the youth's burning passions and rage, that he had soon found...

Now just as Kunzite realized that it was a two-way game that he'd been playing, and that they had both lost – or won -, it all came back to the start. He was nothing to him any more, only his warlord.  
  
Kunzite reached out to him, and saw Shiro's eyes widen in horror.  
  
" Kunzite-dono! What happened to your hands?!"  
  
Kunzite looked down to it too. His white gloves had burned completely, his hands were black and crackled, and green blood tainted them. They didn't hurt that much yet, now that the Silver Crystal had stopped glowing. Kunzite had lived through worse.  
  
" That will heal with a spell", he replied unconcerned.  
  
But the horror in Shiro's eyes... Not at his green blood or the plant-like fibers showing through his burnt skin, but at the depth of his injuries...   
  
Of course. He had almost forgotten that Shiro had always admired and worshipped him, before the Shinma even understood that he could change his feelings into something stronger and useful. Shiro had never been afraid of him, unlike the other soldiers. Yet he knew a lot better how not human Kunzite was, and how evil he could be. He simply didn't care, and undoubtedly related more to him that way than to his fellows.  
  
Kunzite wandered, maybe it wasn't that bad that he had lost his memories. Maybe he should use that opportunity to start their relationship anew, and make it real this time.

Queen Beryl's voice took him out of his musing.  
  
" Kunzite! What are you doing? Why is this scum alive still? Kill him now, and bring me back the Silver Crystal!"  
  
The Senshi, who had been recovering from Kunzite's attacks and prepared to fight back, stopped bewildered. Kunzite turned to the Queen's image floating in the air.  
  
" No" was all that he answered, quietly.  
  
Queen Beryl didn't quite believe her own pointed ears at first, then became enraged.  
  
" You dare?! Follow my orders, I am your Queen!"  
  
" You're not. My Queen is Metalia. And you're no longer leading us for her glory, but for yours and your mean whims. You're leading the Dark Kingdom to its defeat, as you already did centuries ago, killing your own troops. And Metalia doesn't seem to be wanting to correct you. I won't fight for you any longer this hopeless battle."  
  
The dark Queen's eyes glowed with pure hatred, and lightning bolts at them she yelled:  
  
"Die then!"  
  
Kunzite drew Shiro close, intensifying his energy fields to resist the Queen's fury.

Flash : Shiro's mind was shaken by a memory, one of a violent pain exploding through his body after a similar scream of anger... Had the Queen blasted him before? But what for? He was only a soldier, he had never even met the Queen in person.  
  
A stronger bolt pushed Shiro closer against Kunzite, and he wondered why the Ice King even bothered to protect him at all.  
  
Flash : snuggled into those strong arms, breathing the scent of his silver hair and relaxing to the sound of his quiet heartbeat, a firm gloved hand gently stroking his head... Shiro blushed slightly. Had it been a dream? Or had it really happened? He felt as if it wasn't the first time he was held in this embrace.  
  
Another bolt, another flash. Him facing the dark thing that was called Queen Metalia, and repeating an oath of allegiance to her, but keeping his eyes on Kunzite all along. Kunzite, nodding in agreement at his dedication. How he had longed for every word of praise from him while they trained together...  
  
That uniform he's wearing in his memories... A Shinma suit?  
  
He had wished with all his heart to become as powerful as Kunzite-dono, to be worth his respect. There was no way a handsome, strong creature with so many powers would even look at him, if there weren't at least his warfare skills that he worked so hard for.  
  
Memories were struggling to surface in his mind, and he was getting a headache in his attempts to recover them and understand what they meant. But he had to know. It was something very important to him, he knew it...

" Kunzite-sama..."  
  
How did Kunzite hear him despite the thunder of Queen Beryl's attacks was a mystery, but he looked down to him in the moment, appealed by the different call.  
  
These green eyes... Kunzite could see memories awakening in these deep green eyes. The old warmth showed in them again. Then an hesitant voice, almost apologizing.  
  
" Kunzite-sama... I no longer have my powers. I am no longer a Shinma..."  
  
Shiro could hardly believe the care in Kunzite's eyes, and gentleness in his voice once so tough.  
  
" It doesn't matter..."  
  
He lightly closed his lips on Shiro's, who threw his arms around his neck for an eager kiss. He couldn't remember how close, how intimate he'd been with Kunzite before, so he would try anything until the King would stop him. And he didn't.  
  
His mind was pulsing with memories coming back, and his whole frame seemed to burn suddenly. Kunzite felt a change in the body and fabric under his hands, the rush of power inside Shiro, calling to the dark forces of the universe, filling in the human frame and consuming it.  
  
When their lips finally parted, he was not surprised to face Zoisite, in his green-adorned Shinma suit, his hair tied in a loose pony-tail as usual, his eyes shining with malicious joy and excitement after their kiss.  
  
Magic was a question of will... Once you knew how to reach the forces, you could never really forget it.

Queen Beryl eventually stopped her infuriated and useless strikes.  
  
" Kunzite! That is your last chance! Get rid of your ridiculous pet and get me the Silver Crystal!"  
  
Zoisite turned to her with an offended smirk.  
  
" Who's the ridiculous pet?!"  
  
Kunzite smiled behind him, held him tightly so that he wouldn't jump to the Queen, and took him away, far from the Queen, the Senshi and that stupid war. It was no longer theirs.

_End_

_  
__2003  
_

_Author's note _: _… I know, it's hopelessly sappy. I just happened to want to tell a story where love is not exactly redeeming but actually the reason why Zoisite willingly gives up his humanity again just to be a more fitting mate for a demon lord._


End file.
